small talk
…when one is doing nothing it is imperative to talk all the time; and that is the most wearisome and the most dangerous of all forms of constraint. I will even go further and maintain that to make any society really pleasant, not only must everyone be doing something, but something that requires a certain degree of attention. Crochet is as bad as nothing; it takes as much to amuse a woman who is crocheting as one who is sitting with folded hands.